EU asks China for financial crisis cooperation

China and other major Asian economies are being urged to join in taking responsibility for stabilising the world economy. The call, made to Chinese President Hu Jintao and others, comes from the President of the European Commission. Jose Manuel Barroso is in Beijing ahead of a two-day Asia-Europe Meeting.

“We need a coordinated global response to reform the global financial system,” he told reporters. “We are living in unprecedented times and we need unprecedented levels of global coordination. It is very simple: we swim together or we sink together.”

The crisis will be central to talks involving more than 40 Asian and European leaders including Germany’s Angela Merkel. Keen to strengthen business ties with the Chinese, she has been visiting a Mercedes plant in Beijing, seeing its 25,000th car roll off the production line.

Next month, China and other big emerging economies will take part in a summit in the United States to discuss financial reforms.